NYC Cyclocross Guide Part 2: I am already wrecked from all the driving
I must begin with an apology. part 2 of this assignment IS very late. I will not make excuses, and just tell you the truth: It is only October, and I have already driven more than 1000 miles, done 6 races, 3 in the mud, and as Part 1 foreshadowed, have zero results to show for it (RIP front row starts). I am extremely tired and have only just finished cleaning my bike.
Portrait of the Author, October 2022
But you are all about to benefit from the lessons I have learned, the mistakes I have made, the evolution of the first draft of this article from “best practices” to October realities.
Let’s check in with the rest of the team first:
“The vibes have been great, some of the best hangs even when rain was pouring and tents were flying.”
“I don’t know what’s going on. I’m just happy to be here.”
“I did one race and punctured a tubular and thought maybe one race is enough.”
“Currently wallowing in the trough of despair, hoping I will dig myself out and learn to Be Chill and Have Fun with cross.”
“I have the stoke back and fixing my hangover with cross content of old.”
“What a cool and normal sport.”
Remember when I said rest weeks? It is pretty clear who has taken one. I did and I am reinvigorated, finalizing this article, and ready to tackle the second half of the season: Driving To Massachusetts A Lot To Get Your Legs Ripped Off By Freakishly Strong New Englanders.
Congrats! You have reg’ed for a bike race!
Ok, everyone buckle up and settle in. Prepping for race day starts a week in advance. There is a race every week so you are Never Not Prepping. Start prepping for next week’s race as soon as you get home from this week’s (sure, it is 9pm, you just drove through a hurricane, after racing in the hurricane, and you are actually an adult with a full time job that you have to be at in the morning, but you shouldn’t just shower and go to bed and pray to whatever gods you believe in for your bottom bracket). Is your bike working? (The crunching sounds are new!). Do you need to replace any parts? (In Part 1, I told you to buy things, but I didn’t talk about bottom brackets because it wasn’t supposed to rain this much, I mounted file treads!!!!) Do you have those parts? (You know what? Just throw the bike away and start over). Do you have your nutrition? Do you need to do laundry? It’s a lot! Cross is logistics.
Step 1: Your bike
Here’s how a race week should go: If something is wrong with your bike, take it to the shop immediately. On Monday because you want it back by cross practice on Wednesday.
If you are going to do the work yourself, do it on Monday. Why? Because bike maintenance is a game of chance, and “I will do this one simple thing!” often devolves into sitting on the floor of your apartment, posting on slack, and holding back tears as you watch videos of Park Tool’s Calvin Jones, hoping his soothing voice and wrenching expertise will pull you back from the edge.
Gather round, let me tell you a tale. A real one, not the definitely hypothetical one described above. This year many of us drove directly into a hurricane to race our bikes at Charm City. Normal. Some of us did this a mere four days after returning from a muddy Rochester. I have heard people speaking of “pulling cranks” after a muddy race. I had never pulled cranks before, but as a responsible bike owner, after multiple muddy races, I knew I had to.
It went ok! I did it on Monday in case it did not go ok even though I wasn’t even planning to race this weekend! Then I just left the bike on the stand for a while. On Wednesday, I pulled the equivalent of a whole tree out of my brake calipers (how was I even pedaling, really incredible stuff). Then I went for a gravel ride on Saturday (rest week!!) and I couldn’t shift my front derailleur, and now my bike is at the shop and also somehow it is still dirty even I have washed it 10 actual times since Charm City.
You might think is a story about how I am a bad mechanic, but actually it is a cautionary tale about delay. There were no real consequences, but imagine, imagine if I had driven 3 hours to race for 40 minutes.
Fix your bike on Monday.
Cross is Logistics Pro Tips:
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO MAJOR BIKE MAINTENANCE THE NIGHT BEFORE A RACE. Do not adjust, do not fiddle, do not swap. If you didn’t swap your file treads for muds earlier in the week, you are riding those file treads in the mud. (I’m talking to future me I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED). I am harping on this advice, I really want the best for all of us.
Update: it did rain for my first race, and I did successfully swap tires the night before, against my own advice. I have not swapped back because we appear to be doomed to relive 2018. However, other team contributions upon sharing this piece of advice bolster that best practice is: if the bike pedals, leave it alone.
“Remember when Clay bricked his Di2 60 minutes before his race at charm?”
“Remember at Nittany when Matt took apart his entire bike and regreased it on Friday night?”
“I put a new chain on before Bubble cross and it didn’t explode on me yesterday, that’s a win.”
“Cullen and I met for the first time when my brakes exploded the night before charm. I raced without a rear brake.”
Alex, at our Baltimore AirBnB mounting tubeless tires at 9:30pm, and two days later racing on 30 psi: “I had a completely flat front right before the race and my tires had been leaking so I inflated my front extra so that I could lose air throughout the race. But then..... my front tire held all that air perfectly.”
Everyone else is also dropping their bike off on Monday, so if you want that thing back for cross practice on Wednesday, go go go.
Step 2: Packing
Packing starts during the week. I don’t know when during the week, that really depends on your life, how much stuff you left piled at the door when you got home from the last race, how many meetings you have, whether you have given up completely. None of us are professional bike racers and we have jobs and pets and families and meetings and emergencies, but if you wait until the morning of a race to pack, you will get to the race and be missing something silly like your shoes or your helmet. I have heard so many stories about people forgetting their helmets (Look, the shoes I get, but I still don’t understand how there wasn’t an extra helmet floating around????). Anyway.
Do your laundry and start packing whenever you can find the time. Better yet, just never unpack. Maybe leave half of this stuff permanently in your car from September to December, and then if you need your floor pump or something from your toolbox, just ride your bike to your car and deal with it there, or just bring things up to your apartment with you piecemeal every time you move your car for alternate side parking. I am really so very tired.
Cross is logistics pro tips:
Make a packing list. A Definitive List. I have one in my iPhone notes. It is categorized and has different sections depending on weather. Does this seem over-the-top? Yes. Have I ever forgotten my shoes? No. Have I almost forgotten to leave the keys for the pet sitter? YES. I have added that to the list now.
My categories are as follows, some overlap, and obviously you can survive without some of this.
Pre-ride & race: Kit, helmet, shoes, sunglasses, socks, gloves, pre-ride gear, etc, Hot hands + feet (you’ll thank me when you’re standing around in the New England winter, trust me)
Bonus addition for 2022: Mud race! Extra kit. Extra socks. Toe spikes. Extra everything. Plastic bags. Every towel you can spare. Rain boots. A tarp for your car. Just bring everything you own.
Post-race: Change of clothes + whatever else you need to feel clean and stand outside all day (baby wipes, the shower of cross racers).
Nutrition: Pre-race food (gel or whatever), lots of water, mini cokes, lunch/food if there won’t be any to purchase, a cooler and/or big thermos for a warm beverage.
Gear: Bike computer or watch, tools, floor pump, trainer, camping chair, battery, extra brakes, chain, spare rear derailleur hanger, tire pressure gauge.
Weekend Trip: Leave keys for the pet sitter, mechanic stand, airshot, sealant, theragun/roller/yoga mat/recovery gear, breakfast/coffee, snack, etc.
The Pedal Industries bag really is incredible. If you already have a bag you love though, make your life easier with packing cubes. Nothing worse than standing outside in the cold weather, digging through a disorganized bag desperately searching for your pants.
Things to keep in mind:
Overdress for the cold for after your race. Standing around in 30-degree weather is very different from a brisk 10 minute walk to the subway in 30 degree weather. Hot hands/feet are your friends.
Step 3: Race Day
Figuring out when race day starts happens, you guessed it, during the week. Great news, this one can wait until Friday for one day races. Maybe if you wait long enough, someone else who races in your field will have figured it out and you can just agree to it because you don’t want to think about it. (Look the truth is, I am over logistics). Here are the questions you need answered to have a smooth race day.
Is it a one- or two-day race?
How are you getting there?
What time do you race?
What time are all the races before yours?
How many pre-rides do you need and/or want?
How many meals do you need to feed yourself during the day?
What is the weather forecast?
Where is the nearest Wawa?
Cross is logistics Pro tips:
Pre-ride is only available in between races. If you want to pre-ride multiple times, you have to count the number of available slots in between the races before yours. This may mean showing up at 8am even if your race is at 1:30. This is especially true for packed race days with short windows between races.
If you can swing it, show up for long Friday pre-ride at the big weekend races. The race day pre-ride windows are usually very short and a bonus for Friday pre-rides is that’s when the pros are there! Grab a wheel for the few seconds you can manage to! If you can’t find a pro, make sure to do at least a lap with someone more experienced than you.
A controversial tip from me for this year (ymmv based on your specific goals and skills): Don’t just practice riding “the scary stuff.” Spending 30 minutes of pre-ride figuring out how to ride the off-camber at Charm could save you 10 seconds a lap, maybe. But what if you spent 30 minutes absolutely nailing every line of all 15 squiggly turns through the trees, shaving 1 – 2 seconds off each one? That’s 30 seconds a lap! This is obviously a “results-oriented” approach rather than a “personal goals” approach, so follow your heart.
Update: We are already arguing about this.
Find any way to clean your bike immediately if it was a muddy race. If there’s no hose at the race, find the nearest self-service car wash at a gas station. (Most BP gas stations have them!) This is absolutely worth the 30 minute detour and at this point of the article, you should know why.
Ok. I am going to get really real for a minute. The most important thing is to have fun. Bikes are fun!!! It’s about that time of the season where the stress of logistics, the fatigue of multiple race and travel weekends in a row, makes bikes seem less fun. If that feeling resonates with you, then go do some fun bikes, whatever that means to you. Mountain bikes! Gravel! No bikes at all! Go for a run! Take a break, reset, find your stoke. Half the fun of cross is the hangs, so we need everyone’s bikes, legs, hearts, and heckles to make it to December.
If you’re looking for the NYC Crew for the rest of the season, expect to see us at Croton Cross. Really Rad (Now with Pan Ams!), NoHo and of course, Rainey Park. For now, I am going to go refresh crossresults and take a long nap.
